Noelle Rulseh column: Tried and true recipes

Banana chocolate chip muffins.

I love spring for many reasons. First of all, it is the end of winter, the end of darkness, the end of heavy winter clothes and other things we put up with in the Midwest for many long months. Sounds like I should live in a warm climate!

I do enjoy the change of seasons and the beauty each of those seasons bring. I would probably get tired of constant sunshine and temperatures in the eighties.

Spring always makes me want to go through my whole house and clean and organize. At least, wash all the windows and let the fresh spring air blow in. But, I also find the need to throw stuff out.

I have a problem throwing out cookbooks. I really only use a fraction of those books and I find it hard to part with the older ones. How can I throw away Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah or my Time Life Foods of the World series? And I wouldn't part with my church cookbooks, especially the ones from my home church in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. I was married there and our children were baptized there.

This muffin recipe is from the The Welcome Place - First Lutheran Church Cookbook 2006. I took the liberty of adding pecans and drizzling chocolate on top of these muffins.